]]>fave albums of the 00shttp://haikufactory.com/2009/11/22/fave-albums-of-the-00s/
http://haikufactory.com/2009/11/22/fave-albums-of-the-00s/#commentsMon, 23 Nov 2009 05:25:57 +0000http://haikufactory.com/?p=906Making my TV of the decade list made me realize just how many incredible shows the last decade has produced. The 00s have not been as good for music, though. The decade isn’t a write-off, of course, but I could easily rattle off half a dozen albums from the 90s that I preferred to the best of the 00s. However, there was some brilliant electronica happening from about 2000-2003, a wave of great indie pop/rock/folk (much of it Canadian) in the middle of the decade, and… kind of a holding pattern these days, it seems, though maybe I just don’t have sufficient perspective on 2008-09 yet. (I’m secretly hoping the next decade produces an IDM revival. It could happen!)

Anyway, without further ado, my Top 50 Albums of the 00s. Feel free to post your own list in the comments, but be aware that my list is, oddly enough, completely correct and entirely objective, so there’s not really a lot to be gained by disagreeing with it. I expect it to be taught in music history classes by 2030.

The Arcade Fire – Funeral

Low – Things We Lost in the Fire

Boards of Canada – Geogaddi

PJ Harvey – Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea

Radiohead – Kid A

Modest Mouse – The Moon and Antarctica

Cat Power – You Are Free

Caribou – Andorra

Blonde Redhead – Misery is a Butterfly

Four Tet – Rounds

The Arcade Fire – Neon Bible

Add N to (X) – Loud Like Nature

Nicola Conte – Bossa Per Due

Mouse on Mars – Niun Niggung

Low – Trust

Amon Tobin – Supermodified

Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

William Shatner – Has Been

Explosions in the Sky – Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever

Sons and Daughters – This Gift

TV On The Radio – Return To Cookie Mountain

The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

The Field – From Here We Go Sublime

The Flashbulb – Kirlian Selections

Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days

The New Pornographers – Mass Romantic

Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer

Björk – Vespertine

The Knife – Silent Shout

Bonobo – Dial M for Monkey

Yo La Tengo – And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out

Sigur Rós – Ágætis Byrjun

Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings The Flood

Sun Kil Moon – April

Daft Punk – Discovery

Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It In People

Beck – Sea Change

Kid Koala – Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Blonde Redhead – 23

Plaid – Double Figure

Manitoba – Up in Flames

Sons and Daughters – The Repulsion Box

Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever to Tell

The Dandy Warhols – Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia

Junior Boys – Last Exit

Holy Fuck – Holy Fuck

Xploding Plastix – Amateur Girlfriends Go Proskirt Agents

Whew! And here are some more that I really liked but didn’t quite make the cut. You can consider them tied for 51st:

Ah, nothing like an attention-grabbing comic book stunt, is there? When I was slightly younger, my brothers and I would remake Archie comics by cutting and pasting word balloons from one story to another. The results made exactly as much sense, but were much, much funnier.

But right now, I just want to point out that Jughead’s expression goes far beyond “this shit is fucked up” to true heartbreak territory. So much for the theory that Juggie is just a misogynist with a fast metabolism and snappy fashion sense.

It’s been a long time since I sent out a random link that you’ve probably already seen (but hey, even if you have, it’s new to me). Garfield Minus Garfield is… well, I’ll just let the site speak for itself:

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.

]]>status update (still alive, working, reading Spider-Man comics)http://haikufactory.com/2008/01/20/status-update-still-alive-working-reading-spider-man-comics/
Mon, 21 Jan 2008 02:29:33 +0000http://haikufactory.com/2008/01/20/status-update-still-alive-working-reading-spider-man-comics/I haven’t been updating this here blog much lately, and the reason is as lame as can be — I don’t have a computer at home. One of the less glamorous aspects of my otherwise totally sexy Yaletown start-up job is that, if I want to work on OS X instead of Linux (which I very, very much do want), I have to supply my own computer. And so Coconino, my ageing-but-beloved 12″ G4 PowerBook, stays semi-permanently in the office.

However, that just gives me more time to get caught up on my geek reading. Reading like The Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus, 1088 pages of sheer 1960s Spider-Man awesomeness in a volume the size and weight of a cinderblock. My own Marvel comics reading was mostly confined to the late 1980s, as the comics industry was beginning to be slowly ground to death between the Scylla of an overheated speculator market and the Charybdis of an incredibly convoluted continuity. We’re talking plot-twists, rewriting, retconning, editorial fiat, and the steady metronome of character death and resurrection. Though on the plus side, chronicling the Marvel continuity makes for some hilariously deadpan wikipedia articles:

Despite the obvious obstacles, Octavius was for a time on good terms with Peter Parker’s Aunt May, whom he first met in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (1964) when he abducted her and Peter’s then-girlfriend Betty Brant to attract Spider-Man’s attention. In fact, in later years May Parker and Otto Octavius were briefly engaged to be married. Their wedding was interrupted by Hammerhead.

During the Clone Saga, Doctor Octopus saved Spider-Man from certain death due to a poison injected by the Vulture. During the healing process he discovered the identity of Spider-Man and then allowed himself to be taken in by police, expecting to be saved by his accomplice/lover Stunner. But Stunner was knocked out and Doc Ock was murdered by the insane Peter Parker clone named Kaine. Octavius’ student Carolyn Trainer took over as “Doctor Octopus” until the original was resurrected by a branch of the mystical ninja cult known as the Hand. Upon his resurrection, it was revealed that he had no knowledge of Spider-Man’s identity. The reason was that the memories he gained came from a computer chip provided by Carolyn Trainer with his recorded memories; that recent memory had not been recorded at the time of his death.

Oops, spoiler alert!

In reading the original 1960s Spider-Man, it’s hard not to be impressed with how fresh and imaginative those early issues were. Stan Lee and Steve Ditko were clearly firing on all cylinders and every issue is practically bursting with a kind of inmates-taking-over-the-asylum enthusiasm and cockiness. It’s like they woke up one morning, decided they were going to reinvent superhero comics overnight, and then did just that, one guilt-ridden teenaged nerd/crimefighter at a time.

(I’ve also been slowly working my way through the more recent Y: The Last Man, which is an altogether different kind of comic-book goodness…)

]]>Do Not Use for Navigationhttp://haikufactory.com/2007/05/02/do-not-use-for-navigation/
Wed, 02 May 2007 18:03:55 +0000http://haikufactory.com/2007/05/02/do-not-use-for-navigation/

]]>the AV Club strikes againhttp://haikufactory.com/2006/10/16/the-av-club-strikes-again/
Mon, 16 Oct 2006 07:12:53 +0000http://haikufactory.com/2006/10/16/the-av-club-strikes-again/So I spent a goodly chunk of this past weekend devouring The Uncanny X-Men Omnibus, a mammoth book collecting several years worth of the Claremont/Byrne run lent to me by labmate Mike. And while I’m enjoying the hell out of it, and the second half, in particular, it far better than almost anything else Marvel was doing at the time, I have to admit, it’s pretty stupid.

By one of them wacky coincidence thingees, the AV Club blog has a longish post about … well, I’m not exactly sure what the main thrust is, but it addresses a lot of the problems I have with both superhero and alternative — or, in the 21st century, “art” — comics. Worth a read if’n your into that kind of thing.

]]>Bring me the Head of Charlie Brownhttp://haikufactory.com/2006/08/22/bring-me-the-head-of-charlie-brown/
Wed, 23 Aug 2006 06:26:21 +0000http://haikufactory.com/2006/08/20/bring-me-the-head-of-charlie-brown/Note to aspiring YouTube auteurs who would take existing characters and put them into “hilariously” violent situations: if what you are doing is not at least as clever as Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown, you’re wasting your time.

This includes you, Robot Chicken.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the director is Jim Reardon, who later became a director on The Simpsons. I first saw this as a crappy third-gen VHS bootleg back in my filmschool days. By the looks up it, they’re still using the same tape.

]]>Chester Brown’s Wonder Womanhttp://haikufactory.com/2006/06/17/chester-browns-wonder-woman/
Sat, 17 Jun 2006 19:01:02 +0000http://haikufactory.com/?p=21At least as cool as Seth’s X-Men is this comic by Candian indie comic force Chester Brown, a redraw of a page from a 1942 Wonder Woman story. In typical Chester Brown style, it manages to somehow be both charming and unsettling. Like Seth’s drawing, it’s for a charity auction.

]]>The X-Men as a circa-1965 School Photohttp://haikufactory.com/2006/05/28/the-x-men-as-a-circa-1965-school-photo/
Sun, 28 May 2006 20:06:10 +0000http://haikufactory.com/?p=27

Old news, I know, but I really dig this picture of the X-Men by Canadian indie comicist Seth. If you haven’t read his graphic novel It’s a Good Life if You Don’t Weaken, you’re missing out on one of the best bits of Can-lit I’ve read lately.